Students’ bus pass cancelled, NSUI protests

Students’ bus pass cancelled, NSUI protests

Mangaluru, June 09, 2018: NSUI, students’ wing of the Congress, is not happy with the JD(S)-Congress government’s decision that cancelled the free bus passes for students in Karnataka.

Though the finance department has cancelled the proposal sent by the KSRTC to issue free bus passes to all categories of students citing financial burden, the NSUI has urged the government to review the decision.

NSUI has submitted a memorandum to chief minister HD Kumaraswamy and deputy chief minister G Parameshwara urging the government to issue free bus passes in KSRTC for all students.

Currently, the KSRTC is issuing free bus passes only to scheduled caste and scheduled tribe (SC/ST) students. However, in the previous budget the state government had decided to issue free bus passes in KSRTC to all categories of students studying in class 1 to PUC.

Soon after the formation of new JD(S)-Congress coalition government, the finance department has cancelled KSRTC’s new proposal to issue free bus passes to all students in the state, said Sawad Sullia, general secretary, NSUI, Dakshina Kannada district.

NSUI has urged the government to change its decision and commence distribution of free bus passes to all students.

“Earlier, the government was distributing free bus passes to SC/ST students only. Hence, the NSUI requested the government to issue free bus passes in KSRTC to all students without considering their social and economic status.

Accordingly, the KSRTC was all set to commence distribution of bus passes from 2018-19 academic year. However, the finance department has cancelled the proposal sent by KSRTC citing the reason of excessive financial burden on the government,” Sawad said.

As many as 22 lakh students from class 1 to PUC in the state will be benefited if the government starts issuing free bus passes, he said. “The government should start issuing free bus passes to all students considering their future. Similarly, the government also should consider extending the benefits of laptop distribution scheme to all students, rather than limiting it to minority category,” he added.